Orlando / Tampa Bay
Welcome to Orlando, Florida - the site of my 2005 Vacation Kickoff! Dave and I teamed up for another awesome trip! Friday night we went 'old school' with an Epcot visit. Wanting a thrill, we first did "Mission Space" - a flight simulation of astronauts blasting off into Outer Space. Incredible the feeling of 4Gs! Dave was the mission pilot, I was Commander (ah Space Camp days). Next we got in line for Test Track. Imagine bumpy terrain, through hair-pin turns, into a freezing cold chambers, and on to 50-degree banked curves at 70 miles an hour and you'll know what it's like. While in line we met some Kansas Jayhawks college kids. All I have to say now is "What now, yeah yeah yeah!!!" FYI. Bucknell #14 defeated #3 Kansas in the first round of NCAA tournament play. Great work guys! I just purchased my "Bucknell danced the Big Dance..... Just Ask Kansas t-shirt!".
I'm labeling this picture, "Girl all the bad guys want" - Bowling for Soup ;) hehe. It's St.Patrick's Day and after pre-partying at Bennigan's we continued the wild night in downtown Orlando at Club Makos. A perfect blend of quality music, "entertainment", dance floor space, and bar area! There I met Tiffany, who walks into the club and does things on stage NONE of us will ever forget - I just had to meet this young lady! I did and what get's me is how approachable and friendly Southern Belles are! Recommendations: Stay between Central and Garland Ave for fun. Club Paris, Kate O'Briens are your best bets. Dave, Mike, Rich, can we ever forget Pedro picking fights with every drunk person on our way back to the car? hehe
I'm a big fan of NASA and since Orlando is only 30 minutes from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, it was a must! Behind us is a replica "booster" rocket that takes our space orbiters up, up and away!
You want THRUST eh? hehe, we'll here's some amazing rockets!
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| We're looking from the VIP section at LC-39A launch sight! Yep, this is where the cameras role and journalists document a flight. You're required to be 3 miles away from any launch sight as there is enough rocket fuel as an nuclear bomb! | Kennedy Space Center. The brains/storage facility of all our Space Shuttles. Once a shuttle reaches T+4 seconds or "above it's initial starting height Johnson Space Center in Houston takes command of the flight. That's the largest painted American Flag in the United States. |
Saturday we took a few backroads (Rt 66 instead of Interstate 4) to Tampa Bay! A landmark I was looking forward to is the Buc's football stadium! So beautiful with the palm trees. One thing you'll notice about Southern cities is how small the building are. You won't notice already in downtown until only a few miles away and there are only a few high rise structures. I'm used to mega cities such as New York City and Philadelphia. Charlotte is a good example. And remember Dave/Tim, always keep the"Secret" ;)
We visited THEE hot spot in Tampa- Ybor (pronounced E-bor). Spent some time at Gameworks, etc (Way to work your magic Tim). Tampa is an interesting city. It reminded me of a few places I've been. If you drive in from the East on 66 you see a huge port with Carnival ships a la Miami; it has balconies on the main street a la New Orleans and has trolley cars a la San Francisco!
I was happy Tim could join us in Orlando! We wasted no time by checking out Club Paris. (Yep named after Paris Hilton). Thanks for the "after hours" entertainment when a full blown karate fight brought out after last call!